The End
by PrisonerPadfoot
Summary: There were exactly one-hundred people at Kira's funeral. He counted.


Including himself, there were exactly one-hundred people present at the proceedings. He had counted. One hundred people and one shinigami, all gathered to pay their respects to one of Japan's brightest.

Most of those present did not really know Light at all. There were officers who had come to pay respects to the son of a fellow officer. There were his professors from To-Oh, who were sad to see that a student with such a brilliant mind had had his life cut short. Light's friends from To-Oh were there as well, along with some of the Yagami's neighbors and family friends.

Of the hundred people, only nine of them knew how the deceased had truly died. Of course the shinigami knew as well. He had been the one to kill him, after all. As far as most of the guests knew, including Sachiko and Sayu Yagami, Light had been killed by Kira. They, and the rest of the world, would never know that in reality, Kira was now being lowered six feet into the ground.

L caught sight of Soichiro, standing near the grave in the sobbing embrace of his wife. Compared to Soichiro, no one at the funeral truly knew the meaning of the word sorrow. He would have to live out the rest of his days with the knowledge that his son had killed thousands of people. Light's last moments would burn into his memory, and he would probably wonder for the rest of his life whether or not his action toward his son was justified. L only hoped Soichiro could hold himself together enough for the sake of his wife and daughter. L would keep a close watch on Soichiro for the next few years, to make sure he didn't fall victim to his emotions and do something brash.

Perhaps the only one taking Light's death as hard as the Yagamis was Misa. Since she had been told Light had died, the Yagamis had taken her into their home. They could not even pry her out of Light's bed to come to the funeral. She had laid under the blankets like a slug, bawling her eyes out as Sachiko tried to convince her to get dressed. L appearing at the Yagami's doorstep that morning did nothing to improve her mood. She cried harder and threatened to throw herself, and L, out of Light's second-story window. In the end, they had left her home. Rem was with her, but since Misa had lost her memories, the shinigami could not interact with her. They had left Watari with her to make sure she did not do any harm to herself while everyone else was at the funeral.

As they were leaving the house, Rem had hovered over them. "It was his plan for me to kill you," she said. The revelation did not make L or Soichiro feel any better.

L had once said that he would see to Kira's death himself. Now he wasn't so sure he could have gone through with executing Light. It was true that Light was Kira, but L now understood the compelling nature of the Death Note. Soichiro had been right when he said that anyone with such a power to kill was cursed. The Death Note had corrupted Light.

In a way, he had begun to think of Light and Kira as separate people, two very different souls sharing a single body. Light was the best of Kira, and Kira was the worst of Light.

L was glad Ryuk had taken the decision of whether or not Light lived or died into his own hands. It was a decision L could not have made himself.

He suddenly wanted to be very far away. He felt like he was intruding on others' grieving. L did not know what he felt towards Light anymore, all of his emotions were tangled up inside him, and nothing seemed to make any sense. No case had ever stirred such emotion in him before. He had always worked at these things from afar, from behind a computer. The work was impersonal in this way. He caught the criminals and the law did what it wanted with them. He had never seen one of the people he had caught die before. Light was the first.

He had won, but it was a bitter victory. He wished that he could have somehow gotten rid of Kira and saved Light at the same time, even if they were one in the same. This wasn't the way he wanted it to end.

He turned to leave, and the three men at his side followed in his wake.

"Ryuzaki!"

L turned to find Soichiro jogging towards him. They stood facing each other, and for a few moments nothing was said. The silence spoke for itself, really.

"I don't know what I could have done…." Soichiro said lamely. He voice was catching in his throat, and his eyes were glassy with withheld tears. "To prevent this…Light, my son…"

L put his hand on Soichiro's shoulder, giving him an awkward pat. "There is nothing more you could have done," he said. "Please, Yagami-san. Be strong for your wife and daughter. They still need you."

L turned away from him, and Soichiro let him go. Halfway to the path where the car was parked, L took a little detour to sit at the base of a tree. Ryuk was crouching in the lowest branch, watching the funeral from afar.

"Will you continue to stay in the human world?" L asked.

"Nah. This world's boring without watching you and Light match wits," Ryuk said. "Unless _you're_ planning on using the Death Note. That'd be interesting to see."

"Mikami's Death Note will be burned," L replied.

"Eh, too bad. I guess I won't be staying, then."

To think that all that had happened was because one shinigami wanted some entertainment. L got to his feet and started towards the car again.

The four of them piled into Matt's car, Mello riding shotgun. It was quiet once they were on the road, almost deafeningly so. Mello leaned over and plucked the cigarette out of Matt's mouth, casually flinging it out the window. Matt grumbled but said nothing, keeping his attention on driving.

L slipped off his shoes and loosened his tie. He never wanted to wear this particular outfit ever again. For the longest time, nothing was said.

Mello shifted in his seat. He obviously did not like the silence. "Bastard got what he deserved, eh?" he said finally. No one gave him a reply, and he cursed under his breath. "L?"

L blinked a few times, looking dazedly up at the blond. "Oh, excuse me. I wasn't listening," he said softly.

"Obviously," Mello said.

"I was wondering what could have become of Light-kun if he had not found the Death Note," L explained, "His mind was quite brilliant. He would have made an excellent detective. It is not impossible that we could have wound up working together if things had gone differently."

"It was a waste of good intellect," Near commented.

Mello scoffed. "He was brilliantly insane. He killed thousands of people! He almost killed all of us!"

It was true. In his last moments alive, Light had tried to take them down with him. The little strip of Death Note concealed in his watch had half of L's true name written on it in blood before Light met his end. They had driven Light into a corner he could not escape from, and the sheer desperation that bubbled to the surface was almost more than L could bear. He had never seen anything like what he saw in Light's face during his last moments. It was as if Light had gone mad right before their eyes. Soichiro would later say that he could barely recognize him as his son. Perhaps that's why he barely thought twice about shooting him.

At first L had been reluctant to draw his three young protégés into the Kira case, but after Higuchi's death it became evident that he had no other choice. At first he had planned to test the notebook and pursue Misa as Kira. But after awhile he determined such was not a proper course of action. Rem, the shinigami tied to Higuchi's notebook, evaded all his questions about the current Kira and the rules of the Note. He became convinced that the shinigami and the current Kira were connected somehow. He talked to the shinigami both in front of the other investigators and one-on-one. In one of his private talks with her, he saved Misa for last in the conversation, and he took note of the shinigami's sudden increased interest in what he had to say.

"If Misa is the one currently acting as Kira, it is almost certain that Misa is the second Kira, and Light is the first Kira. If it can be somehow proven that Light is Kira, then it is possible that we can place Misa out of the danger she faces," L had said.

The shinigami said nothing, only stared at him in quiet fascination.

"Misa's obsessive love for Yagami-kun is quite unnatural. That sort of devotion can drive a person to do many things he or she would not normally do. In that case, it can be said that Misa may have been manipulated, or even threatened, into acting as the second Kira. She could be seen as a victim in this as well. Don't you agree?"

To his amazement, the shinigami nodded in agreement. All doubt that Light was Kira vanished from his mind in that moment.

From then on the investigation took on the feeling of a scripted melodrama, for that's what it really was.

Light was exposed as Kira in an elaborate plot that involved creating fake Death Notes and Near, Mello and Matt operating as a separate entity in tandem with a few willing members of the CIA and FBI, known as the SPK. Near first contacted L when all members of the Task Force, including Light, were gathered in headquarters. The conversation between L and Near was perfectly rehearsed, and by the time it was over all of the Task Force members believed the SPK to be a rogue United States agency that was pursuing the Kira case with no connection to L or the Task Force whatsoever.

There had been so much secrecy in his plan that L feared it would derail somewhere down the line, but it had all worked out frighteningly well. Though he remained at the helm of the operation, he was placing most of his work, and all of his trust, in the hands of his three protégés. They possessed a freedom of movement that he did not. There was only so much he could do while his prime suspect was constantly looming over his shoulder.

It was an unexpected twist in L's plans when the shinigami Sidoh appeared in their midst, asking for his Death Note to be returned to him. The notebook they had taken from Higuchi was returned to Sidoh, and for that L was a bit relieved. It made studying the Death Note impossible, but it also made their plans even easier. They would only have one notebook to concentrate on. Sidoh also supplied L the information that the 13-day rule was a fake, along with other pertinent information on the rules of the Note. This drew more suspicion onto Light from the other Task force members. L could feel the crack forming in their little group. The tension was becoming palpable.

Things had spiraled to a end at an alarming pace. He used the Task Force to keep close tabs on Misa. They started keeping an almost constant watch on her, but the killings continued at an alarming rate. L suspected that Misa had relinquished ownership of the Death Note, and it was only a matter of finding the person who was using it in her stead.

It was just around the time Kiyomi Takada became the new host of Kira's Kingdom that Teru Mikami came to the center stage of the investigation, and L wasted no time. L toyed with his suspicions of Mikami in front of the Task Force while using the SPK to investigate him thoroughly. He made sure Near informed the Task Force that they were suspicious of Mikami and were keeping tabs on him. L surmised that the Death Note Matt discovered in Mikami's briefcase was most likely a fake and Mikami knew that he was being followed. That Death Note was replaced by yet another fake note, just as Kira would be anticipating them to do.

Meanwhile, a gracious amount of investigating and padding a corrupt banker's pockets allowed Mello to retrieve the real Death Note from Mikami's bank vault, replacing it with another copy. All of this was done without the Task Force's knowledge.

It all ended when Near requested that the Kira Task Force meet with the SPK at a little warehouse on the docks. The Task Force was shocked to hear that Near and the rest had been under L's command the entire time, but not nearly as shocked as when they learned Mikami had been watching them, writing. Aizawa and Mogi had forcibly dragged Mikami inside the warehouse, and L took his fake Note to reveal that Mikami had written the names of everyone present, except for Light. Mello then produced the real Death Note from his coat pocket and allowed L and the Task Force to see the shinigami attached to it, Ryuk.

As Light lunged screaming at Mikami, Mello fired and Light fell to the floor, blood pouring from his right foot. Mogi took Mikami in a headlock to prevent him from rushing to Light.

Light's rant, his reasoning for all he had done, was twisted yet heartbreaking. No one knew quite what to feel at the moment. Light turned his back on them, pressing himself up against the wall.

"He's writing something!" someone yelled. Thinking about it, L couldn't remember who had said it. Aizawa, maybe Ide. Even to his keen memory, that moment was a blur. What happened a few seconds later would always dominate his memory.

Matsuda pulled his gun, and Light began to laugh. Mello cocked his gun, and Light screamed in pain as a bullet tore through him. All eyes turned to Soichiro Yagami. The barrel of his drawn gun was smoking slightly. Matsuda dropped his own gun and fell to floor, laying his head in his hands.

Soichiro's shot caught Light in the shoulder, and he fell flailing in a puddle of stagnant water. He begged and pleaded for Ryuk to write, to kill. Ryuk agreed.

Ryuk turned his Death Note so they could all see what he had written. Only Light's name was scrawled upon the page. Soichiro took his son into his arms, and it was the longest forty seconds any of them had ever waited through.

"L…you bastard," were Light's final words. They would haunt him to the grave.

L was splattered with blood as Mikami broke free of Mogi's hold, producing a gun from his jacket pocket and shooting himself right between the eyes. No one else would die that day.

"So what now that Yagami's dead?" Mello asked. The question drew L back from his musings and into the present.

"We will do as we planned previously. The Task Force and SPK will be disbanded. Since neither are government-sponsored agencies, there will be no one to answer to for doing so. In the next twenty-one days or so, some criminals may die, but the deaths will taper off. Mikami's Note will be burned, and Misa may be placed into special care if she does not improve, given her shinigami friend approves of where we place her. No one will be charged as Kira, and Kira will be no more. That is all," L said.

Except that really wasn't it the end of the Kira case. Kira may have been gone, but his memory would live on. For years the media would be asking their readers and viewers where they thought Kira was and what his plans were. He wouldn't be surprised if the sudden lack of deaths even provoked a sort of mass hysteria, a fear of a massive numbers of killings all at once. People would continue to worship Kira and pray to him for the swift kind of justice he doled out. No, it was not over quite yet. They would be hearing about Kira for years to come, and L knew he would be thinking about Light and replaying every step of the investigation in his mind, over and over again.

For the first time in his life, he wanted a break from work. He had always jumped from one case right into the next, but not this time. He wanted to put the mess out of his mind for awhile. And when he did finally decided to go back to work, he would not be alone. He was proud of the work Near, Mello, and Matt had done. They would not be his successors, but his associates.

Of one thing he was certain. No matter how many cases he took on after this, none of them would ever leave such a lasting impression on him. He laid his head atop his knees and the strange ringing he always heard in his ears morphed in Kira's laughter.

He could never forget about this case, or about Kira and Light Yagami, no matter how much he wanted to.


End file.
